 The Office for Victims of Crime is committed to enhancing the nation's capacity to assist crime victims and to providing leadership in changing attitudes, policies and practices to promote justice and healing for all victims of crime. Points of view expressed in this video do not represent the official position of the United States Department of Justice. In an unprecedented action, John Gillis, the director of the Office for Victims of Crime, traveled around the United States to meet with crime victims firsthand to discuss their experiences with the criminal justice system. A series of roundtable meetings were held in nine states, with 30 states represented and over 300 participants. After careful analysis of the informative and heartfelt opinions expressed, there were certain areas of consistency that emerged. The issues focused on both the problems that exist in the criminal justice system and the needed remedies from the perspective of crime victims. This program series captures and reflects some of the key findings of the roundtable discussions. The series includes a total of five thematic videos on topics ranging from the financial impact of crime on victims to victim notification and basic case information. The opinions expressed are emblematic of many of the participants and is a way in which the Office for Victims of Crime has given a voice to victims. So the one way that I feel that we need to find out how we help you is by going out and meeting with people outside the Beltway, going out and talking with crime victims, meeting the individuals at the grassroots level who are doing the work and who are doing it for the right reasons, not because they're being paid but because they care about what they're doing. So I want to use this as an opportunity to find out from you how we can best help you at the grassroots level, how we can best do some of the things that will help you get through the tragedies that you've all suffered. We've had horror stories here in Arizona where people were either threatened with termination or were fired. Here in Arizona, we recently passed a law that allows crime victims to take unpaid leave to go to court proceedings. But I'd like to see it on a federal level, maybe under the Family Medical Leave Act because rightly so when a mother brings a child into the world or the both parents, you're given up to three months for Family Medical Leave but if one's taken by violence, you're lucky if you get three days' bereavement leave. Crime victims compensation, I would like to see, recognize that trials sometimes take longer than what they think they will, they get delayed and delayed. And while you're receiving crime victims compensation, which I really appreciate, sometimes it gets really close to your two-year limit and after your trial, if you do have one, if you're lucky enough to have one, you go through a second grief and you're a basket case. And I would like to see some funding go to that, if trials are delayed, could we please be recognized that our grief doesn't stop or our trials and tribulations don't stop after two years. I also feel that my husband and I were very fortunate. We're a middle-class family. It was difficult but we could afford to fly back and forth to Portland, Oregon over 17 times and follow our son's case. We could afford to write our congressman and ask our families to do the same. We knew how to work the various systems to make them work together. We're both clinical social workers. But there are a lot of victims and families who don't have that ability and somehow we do have to reach them. Victim compensation discriminates against poor communities, especially black communities, in that the majority of people are turned down. They get this nasty letter saying that this is drug-related and that this person was responsible for their own demise because of choices that they made. Now, even if say, for example, and this is just for example, Ms. Wilkins' daughter is four years old and is killed, they could say that that was drug-related. Not that she or her child had anything to do with drugs, but that the argument with someone in her family, with her cousin or nephew, what if they were involved in drugs? What if the young men from down the street that did the shooting was involved in drugs? The police report will say, will definitely say drug-related and as a result, she need not even apply because they aren't going to give it to her. I guess I would like to ask the federal government to put a little more pressure on the states to liberalize the rules to make the process simpler, quicker. As an example, our state at one time had a requirement that unless, if the victim had a life insurance policy, then you were not eligible for a victim's compensation. Our daughter had a small life insurance policy and we were not eligible. Another requirement, as an example, our state required that the victim must have been living, I mean the applicant must have been living with the victim to be eligible. We've gotten that modified somewhat in our state, but it's those kind of rules that really make it unreasonable for a victim. And you know, as you know, your survivor money is the last thing on your mind, but you'd like to bury your loved one in a dignified manner, in a decent manner, you don't want to have to put them in a wooden box and stick them away. And so many poor people, that's really what they're faced with. I was approved for counsel and I had insurance at that time, but my insurance only would pay a certain amount. So I assumed that the other funding would pick up when that ended, but it didn't work that way. So I ended up having to stop going to my C, my therapist. We had to go down to the police garage. We had to retrieve the vehicle, which had not been started in 13 months. The car was still covered in the dusting powder. On the front seat were his glasses that were taken off his face when the paramedics were trying to get him out of the car. His glasses were covered in blood, the front seat was covered in blood, the dashboard was covered in blood. And my husband and I had to sit in our child's blood and drive this vehicle home. This, I mean, this is just, it's appalling. No family should ever have to go through this. There should have been some type of service, whether it was the police, whether it was someone else, who could have made arrangements to deliver that vehicle home for us or deliver it to the insurance company. They did pay to clean the seats, but they would not pay to have the, there was a piece of plastic where the bullet had gone through Dan's neck and exited the other side. We wanted to sell the car, of course. Unfortunately, my daughter couldn't afford it. So we were stuck once again after her having been without a car for that period of time. Every time we had to sit in that car because we couldn't afford to replace it, there was that visual reminder of what had happened. I did not have any restitution ordered in my case. Why? Because my offender doesn't have any money. So, no restitution. Luckily, I did have Victim's Comp that stepped in, and even with the $10,000 cap and health insurance, my health bills were astronomical. And a few years ago, I found out that he's making $750 an hour building furniture, some god thing. My only solace on that is that 20% of that goes to the Victim's Comp program. What's he doing with the other money? I mean, I know of another survivor whose sex offender was released, who maxed out and told the Department of Corrections that he didn't need to work because he saved up so much money working in prison. NOVA, their conference is always paid for by grants, and parents of murdered children do not get the conference paid for. And that is such a huge issue. We have so many people that need to attend, but can't. Even though we have chapters who are willing to pay ways, there are people out there across the nation. We have over 100,000 families. And these people need to have the conference subsidized for them because it is so vital to their well-being. My tax dollars are feeding and clothing, murderers in prison, yet those who need the funds to help them get through that initial bereavement, which is always the very difficult time, where is that money? We've got a seven-year-old child here that has to be raised, and she does have to be monitored because we don't know what effect this is going to have on her in her future. Because she was found at the murder site, she was there for 22 hours with her dead parents, and I don't feel that she should be told no. I have to feed the murderer of her parents, and I have to feed or pay for his lawyer, and I don't feel that anyone should ever tell this child no. Since education is so expensive, is there any way that there can be a fund set up for these children to actually get a good college education, go to your university, amount to something, because on just one paycheck alone and a little bit of social security that the surviving parent is receiving, I don't think you can put anybody through college these days. I'd like to see nationally and statewide as well as county no tax for victims in the crime year, no property tax, no state tax, no federal tax. We've paid our dues. I'd like to see for children of murdered parents, college or technical school scholarships for those children. If their parent was murdered, they have no opportunity then to save their college fund for their child anymore. We should have the money. We should make the money for that. Because of all the problems that I had with our case, Dragon Atta, of four years, I did a little research on financing, and we drove 24,000 miles in that four-year period, just going back to hearings and trials. And I also could pinpoint like $216,000 that it cost our family, and we received nothing in return. We have nearly lost our home. It has been a financial, the last nine years, we have put everything we have into our program of speaking out for Stephanie and other victims. You know, I'm tired of talking to someone and saying, you know, we need a little bit of help, and their answer is, well, I'm sorry for your loss, but... And it's just like, you know, I want to say, I hope you never lose someone that you love so dearly in a violent crime. And because this financially has just totally tapped us out. One of those consequences of ramifications from those murders, and I'm just talking about, never mind the justice system part of it, is the financial ramifications. My wife was a teacher. We both made about the same money. $50,000 a year gone overnight. How many have $1,000 a week income they can afford to throw away? How many have $1,000 a week income that doesn't affect your credit card, your car payment, your mortgage? We were at the state legislature. We wanted the state to pass a law saying victims of crime who lose a spouse who's a major income earner and are not implicated in the murders are eligible for low interest disaster loans. Why isn't that possible? It's a disaster. I do thank you for taking the time to spend with us today. I wish you didn't have to do it. I wish we were here under different circumstances because none of us chose to have a tragedy happen in our lives. But now that it has happened, let's see if we can take advantage of that and try and help others who have to follow so that they don't have to suffer the same pain that we've suffered. So thank you. The following is a summary of the key points made during this program. Making low interest federal loans available for surviving family members of homicide and other violent crime. Creating a federal law which provides unpaid leave for victims of violent crime and their family members, perhaps under the Family Medical Leave Act. Providing funds to help family members of victims to attend criminal justice system proceedings pertaining to their loved one's case. Assuring that the timing of crime victims' compensation must coincide with the delays and continuances that occur with the criminal justice system process. Recognizing the victims of violent crime who are indigent and unfamiliar with the workings of the criminal justice system need particular assistance. Address the unfair associations made between illegal acts on the part of the defendant, such as drug related behaviors and decisions made regarding the victim's eligibility for crime victim compensation. Exerting more pressure on states nationwide to liberalize the rules to assist crime victims with issues such as life insurance policies and the timing of therapy payments to exceed prescribed limits. Creating a service to assist crime victims with the personal items associated with the crime and crime scene. Granting sufficient restitution for crime victims that truly addresses the magnitude of health care costs associated with being a victim of violent crime. Providing college funding for children who are the surviving family members of murdered parents. Determining that there should be tax relief for crime victims in the year of the commission of the crime. The Office for Victims of Crime supports a biennial meeting of state crime victims compensation and victim assistance administrators. These meetings provide a forum to discuss unmet needs of crime victims as well as unserved victim populations, opportunities for coordination among programs and efforts to improve outreach and response to crime victims needs. OVC's state crime victims survivor scholarship program provides funds to organizations sponsoring state conferences for scholarships to eligible victims survivors who otherwise might be unable to attend the conference. OVC professional development scholarship program offers professional development scholarships up to $1,000 for individuals and up to $5,000 for multidisciplinary teams to those who work with victims of crime and are seeking continuing education opportunities. For more information visit the following website.